Language Variation as Social Practice

aeo Provides an ethnographically rich account of sociolinguistic variation in an adolescent population. aeo Shows how local processes coincide with the global patterning of variation with class, gender and age. aeo Uncovers the nature of social meaning and the dynamics of influence in variation. Linguistic Variation as Social Practice is a study of the speech of the adolescent population of a midwestern high school, relating individuals' subtle patterns of pronunciation and grammar to participation in the peer social order. Based on two years of sociolinguistic and ethnographic fieldwork in one school, supplemented by shorter periods of fieldwork in three other schools, the study focuses on the polarized social categories, the "jocks" and the "burnouts," that dominate social organization in all of these schools. This book describes the social categories, networks, and practices that constitute the local adolescent social order, relates these to wider patterns in the urban-suburban area, and ultimately to wider societal patterns. Linguistic Variation as Social Practice is an ideal text for advanced students of sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics. This volume provides an ethnographically rich account of sociolinguistic variation in an adolescent population.